FORGET the boring technicalities of Labour's disciplinary procedures that have allowed 'rebel' Blackburn councillors Peter Greenwood and Don Rishton back into the fold after they were suspended for three months for not toeing the party line.

More important is why they were made outcasts in the first place -- for speaking and voting against the moves to hold town hall meetings in secret as Blackburn with Darwen Council switched to a cabinet-style system. Remember?

Yet, when this manifestly-undemocratic skulduggery provoked public outcry and a backlash in the local elections, the ruling Labour group suddenly relented and opted for openness -- which means that, all along, the principled Councillors Greenwood and Rishton were right, not wrong, does it not? And that, in being suspended, they were wronged.

Rather than them being readmitted on appeal to the party proper by the back door because, it turns out, the group had not followed the correct banning procedures in any case, should not Labour's leaders be offering the pair a deserved apology and thanks for their example -- publicly, of course?